United Church of Christ

The United Church of Christ is a mainline Christian denomination whose national offices frequently advocates on liberal issues including peace, employment opportunity, housing, anti-discrimination (ageism, sexism, racism, LGBT issues), Fair Trade and Globalization, Middle East issues, and the environment. Constitutionally, the denomination is congregational, meaning that the Executive Council can only speak "to and not for" the 1.3 million members of ~5700 congregations. In reality, these congregations currently have no direct control over statements made by their national body, and as a result the Executive Council commonly decides to propagate statements to the national media that are in conflict with the stated positions of many local congregations.

The United Church of Christ recently began a "God is still speaking" advertising campaign designed by Gotham Inc.

The United Church of Christ has also participated in at least one alleged corporate-financed astroturf campaign.

Washington Post reporter Christopher Stern reported on June 20, 2003, that the United Church of Christ was one of several groups, including also the Gray Panthers, the New York Public Interest Research Group and former WorldCom employee Mitch Marcus, who participated in a seemingly grassroots protest demanding harsher federal penalties against WorldCom following the company's massive fraud conviction. "The outpouring, though, was hardly spontaneous. Several of the opponents, including protest organizers and petitioners, had ties to Issue Dynamics Inc. (IDI), a Washington-based consulting firm whose clients include some of WorldCom's biggest competitors, such as the regional phone giant Verizon Communications Inc. ... IDI's practice of organizing public interest groups to support its initiatives has occasionally angered some consumer activists, who said President Samuel A. Simon often does not disclose whom he is working for. ... Last month, the Gray Panthers took out full-page advertisements in The Washington Post and several other newspapers that called on the federal government to stop doing business with WorldCom. The ad said it was paid for by the Gray Panthers but did not mention that IDI provided much of the money. ..."

Personnel

 * John H. Thomas, General Minister and President
 * Edith A. Guffey, Associate General Minister
 * Jose A. Malayang, Executive Minister
 * M. Linda Jaramillo, Executive Minister of the UCC's Justice and Witness Ministries
 * Cally Rogers-Witte, Executive Minister of the UCC's Wider Church Ministries

Contact information
700 Prospect Ave. Cleveland, OH 44115 Phone: (216) 736-2112 E-mail: whitneyk AT ucc.org Web: http://www.ucc.org